


A Star to Guide You Home

by WonderstruckGuardian



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dimension-Hopping Rose Tyler, F/M, Family, Fluff, Friendship, Holidays, Humor, Love Confessions, Reunions, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 20:48:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29723028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WonderstruckGuardian/pseuds/WonderstruckGuardian
Summary: Three years after the Doctor burned up a sun to say goodbye to Rose Tyler, he and Donna Noble decide to take a break from all the running and world-saving to enjoy the winter holidays on Earth. They end up in a university town at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains with lots of little shops to explore, and a star glowing on the side of a mountain. And maybe, just maybe, this can be a holiday for lost things being found…
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Comments: 12
Kudos: 36





	A Star to Guide You Home

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone!  
> I know I really should be working on Born To Be Wild (BTBW), but I already had this fic mostly finished in December, just never edited and posted it until now. Hope you all enjoy this fic full of absolute fluff and friendship and family. I would definitely recommend listening to "Wintergreen" by The East Pointers before reading this. 
> 
> Here is a link to a decent photo of the Boulder Flagstaff Star: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cz19VhfXgAEXcdf.jpg
> 
> **For those of you following BTBW, the next chapter is coming soon-ish. It's been a bit of an...adventure, dealing with the next few chapters.

_[December 21, 2010]_

  
A slushy snowball smacked into the Doctor’s back. He yelped and instantly spun around on his heel to launched his own snowball back at Donna. She shrieked and laughed as she dodged his attack.  
  
“Oi! Not the face!” She shouted, her breath turning to fog in the frigid winter air.  
  
The Time Lord grinned and rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t aiming for your—Never mind! You started it!” He accused, though he was laughing too. He darted forward and grabbed her hand to steady her when she slipped on a patch of ice, and then pulled her down the pavement with him, dodging other shoppers along the way.   
  
The Doctor had been quite excited for this trip, bounding around the console enroute to their destination like a hyperactive kid who’d eaten too much sugar. They were in Boulder, Colorado, a university town nestled in a valley at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. He’d decided to take them to Boulder (circa December 2010) after Donna had gone on and on the day before about wanting a nice, _uneventful_ holiday somewhere _fun_ and _relaxing_.   
  
While mentally running through all the places in the universe that could possibly fit Donna’s criteria, the Doctor had stumbled upon a memory of an unusual night of adventures he’d had in a little, environmentally friendly town in Colorado sometime in 1969. He couldn’t remember which body that had been in, since 1969 tended to be a year he often revisited ( _something that was not exactly his fault, thank you very much_ ). It didn’t take long for him to remember visiting the town a few other times as well, though none of those memories brought with them the same nostalgia, surprising sense of satisfaction, and mild embarrassment.  
  
Well, a little trip to Boulder couldn’t hurt, in any case. He wanted to see what had happened to the town since his last visit. Landing there this time on December 21st—Winter Solstice, and the day of a full lunar eclipse for this part of Earth—was more of an accident than anything, but even the cold and overcast skies could not dampen his enthusiasm.   
  
Neither Donna nor the Doctor had any complaints about it as they walked west along the Pearl Street Mall. (Here, west always meant toward the mountains.)  
  
When they'd first arrived, Donna had asked the Doctor why on Earth he thought taking her to a bloody mall of all places would be fun or relaxing. She wasn’t really in the mood for shopping, or crowds. The Doctor had merely given her a raised eyebrow and a mischievous grin before opening the TARDIS doors for her to see where they were.   
  
Donna had peered outside, seen the snow on the ground, and colorful lights strung up around trees and streetlights, and dashed back to her room to grab her warmest winter clothes and boots. The Doctor chose to wear only his usual attire. Today that meant his brown suit, long brown coat, and white Chucks. When Donna had questioned his lack of winter-appropriate clothing, he pointed out that cold simply didn’t affect him as much as it did her. A perk of not being human, in this case.  


~ ~ ~ ~

  
Donna quickly discovered that the Pearl Street Mall was nothing like she’d assumed it would be when she first learned they were in the U.S. in 2010. According to a woman working at the first little artsy shop they explored, the Pearl Street Mall was one of the more successful and long-lasting pedestrian malls in the States, and even in the world.  
  
The Doctor was quite enthused about it all. “—and then, in 1976, the whole length of Pearl Street between 11th and 15th was apparently closed to traffic and paved in, turning it into a pedestrian mall! Of course, some businesses were probably unhappy about it at first, but that doesn’t seem to have mattered in the big picture. It’s amazing! Just a few years after I was here, BAM! This place just takes off!” He told Donna.   
  
Knowing how the Time Lord could be with his nonstop gob and with vast stores of knowledge, (and personally glad that no aggravated aliens were chasing them for the time being), Donna was happy to go along with his impromptu history lesson as they perused various shops. It was nice to see the Doctor be simply happy. He rarely let the whole weight of the universe fall from his skinny shoulders, even when he was excited about a new place or meeting a famous person.  
  
The two of them wandered in and out of shops and engaged in the occasional snowball fight. (They eventually reached a tie, which Donna found great pride in given that her aim usually left a lot to be desired.)  
  
Donna pulled the Doctor into some of locally-owned places in search of souvenirs and Christmas gifts for Silvia and Wilf, and the Doctor talked her into staying a whole thirty-seven minutes in an antique map store because the he’d noticed an alien map of some distant planet that definitely didn’t belong in a store on Earth. Thus he ended up buying that map AND checking every other nook and cranny to make sure no more alien maps had made it in there. Donna dragged him away before the irritated shop-owner could kick them out. Once outside, the two time-travelers had burst out laughing at the comically sour look on the owner’s face when the Doctor had told him what he thought the map’s real worth was, since it was just a very well-made copy of the real thing, and then offered to buy it for that price.  
  
“Did you have to say it like that? God, I thought he was going to explode right then and there!” Donna said, waiting for the Doctor to finish properly folding the alien map and put it in his dimensionally-transcendental coat pocket. He laughed lightly at the memory of the man’s red face, nodding in agreement.  
  
A gust of wind whipped the snow on the ground into a frenzy, making it fly every which way. Donna blew her hair out of her face, laughter fading as she gripped the handle of her small shopping bag tighter in one mittened hand and crossed her arms with a shiver.   
  
The Doctor shot her a smile, that slightly nervous one that he adopted sometimes when he was about to talk her into something that she probably wouldn’t really like to do, but always did anyway because it rarely turned out to be as bad as she feared it might be.   
  
“Alright, what is it?” She asked  
  
He shuffled his converse-clad feet against the smooth red bricks that paved most of the Pearl Street Mall. “One more shop, just one, and then I’ll show you to one of the best cafes in Boulder where we can get something warm to drink. Sound good?”  
  
Donna’s expression softened at his consideration. It was one of those days. Where he still managed to rush around like a hyper child, but not as much, and not in a way that would drag them straight into the next alien war, or an accidental (mis)adventure resulting from a piloting error or a disagreement with the TARDIS.   
  
Donna reluctantly let him lead her toward a a storefront displaying caramel apples and chocolates. One thing led to another, and soon they were standing in front of the cash register at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Donna covered her face with her mitten-covered hands and stifled a groan of exasperation when she realized what had attracted the Doctor to this particular shop.   
  
Despite being the 904-year-old Time Lord that he was, the Doctor remained utterly oblivious to her embarrassment and happily ordered one chocolate-covered frozen banana. The staff took his request quite well, promptly providing said chocolate-covered banana with only mild bewilderment. Donna watched the Doctor pay for his frozen treat from behind her hands, wondering over and over again why he would want to eat something literally frozen when it was uncomfortably close to freezing outside.   
  
At least she was prepared for, and quite frankly expected, the Time Lord’s bouts of general craziness. The poor young men and women working at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory had to face it without warning. Donna thought they did quite well, considering.  
  
The Doctor enjoyed the frozen banana a bit overenthusiastically as he and Donna walked the few blocks west to the café he’d promised her. He only made two comments about the chocolate covering being sub-par to that of other planets and some other countries on Earth, but nonetheless finished the whole thing in what Donna considered a shockingly short amount of time.   
  
The sun sank lower behind the mountains, and Donna began to focus more and more on how far away the bloody café was. She dearly hoped she could get a hot cuppa at the cafe—if any American place could make one properly, that was.  
  
The BookEnd Café had a small outdoor seating area out front, separated from the rest of the pavement by a thick, almost elegant wrought iron railing. Only a few brave souls sat outside there. The front wall of the café was composed of large windows that could be moved to the side, making the indoor seating area partially open-air on warmer days.  
  
The Doctor held the heavy wooden front door open for Donna, and she sighed in relief as she stepped inside. It was bigger than she’d expected, and despite its high ceilings, it had a warm, homey atmosphere.  
  
The tables near the front were packed with families and couples and people who had no one with them but seemed to enjoy the festive atmosphere and getting out of the house for a bit of people-watching downtown. There were a few more tables in the back, just past a six-foot-tall dividing wall that stuck out from the brick wall to Donna’s left. A funny sort of frog statue and a giant ball of string sat at the far end of the dividing wall.  
  
The Doctor was quick to notice a family preparing to leave their table near the dividing wall, and quickly claimed that table for the two of them before joining his redhaired companion in the que.  
  
“Almost forgot!” He said. “Since we’re here, you might want to get something to eat, if you’re hungry. You weren’t too happy about what the TARDIS had to offer last night. She’s restocked since then, but, they’ve got good food here anyway, so...” He nodded to the series of colorful, artistically decorated menus hanging on the wall behind the cash register.   
  
Donna shrugged, having already forgotten exactly hat she hadn’t liked about their dinner the night before. She wasn’t particularly picky when it came to food these days, so it must’ve been something awful. She eventually decided on the cafe’s signature breakfast burrito with a side of the soup of the day, because the cashier had insisted it was one of their more popular food items other than the pies. She also ordered two hot cups of tea, with a strong emphasis on the hot part, for herself and the Doctor. Lord knew the alien might never get anything warm for himself on this trip. Donna was a little determined to make that happen by now.   
  
The Doctor ended up paying, mostly because he was the only one between the two of them who could pay in American dollars. Donna wasn’t quite sure where he’d gotten the thick wad of green banknotes he’d produced from his coat pocket, and decided not to ask. Yet.   
  
Of course, he still noticed her curious gaze as they made their way to their table in the corner to wait for their food and tea.  
  
“Rose,” he said, sitting down across from Donna with a small, half-hearted smile on his face.  
  
Donna’s brow furrowed, and she shifted, trying to get comfortable on her hard wooden chair. The Doctor wanted to talk about Rose _now_?  
  
He was quick to clarify. “The first time I took Rose out to get chips, I didn’t have any money with me. Hadn’t thought I would need it. She ended up paying, and never let me forget it.” At this, his smile grew more nostalgic. It was a look Donna was used to seeing every so often. She waited patiently for him to continue, which he did after clearing his throat and snapping out of whatever memory of Rose had pulled his attention away. “Right, so, after a while, whenever we’d visit a new place, she’d exchange a few intergalactic credits for whatever the local currency was. _‘Just in case,’_ she said, and she was right.”  
  
“You took her out on an actual date?” Donna was surprised that she was only hearing about such a monumental event now.  
  
The Doctor sputtered. “It wasn’t a—Well—No, not really. We didn’t—”  
  
_Of course he hadn’t_.   
  
Donna sighed, and took pity on the Time Lord before he could dig himself deeper into a proverbial hole. “I know, Spaceman. I know,” she muttered.  
  
“Yeah,” he said, a hint of dejection creeping into his voice.  
  
To give the Doctor a moment to himself, Donna took the time to look around the café again. She noted with some delight that there was an open doorway just past the dividing wall that led into a packed bookstore. (Hopefully any later excursions into said bookstore would go better than that time she and the Doctor found a secret alien tunnel in the catacombs under Paris that led straight into Shakespeare & Company via one of their oldest bookshelves. That had been painful to have to explain to the authorities, especially in front of all the summer tourists.)  
  
Then the Doctor’s carefully crafted front, with all its boyishly enthusiasm, was back in full force. “So!” He clapped his hands together. “Fun facts about Boulder, let’s see…Hmmm. I think I’ve been here twice before. I think the most recent time, sometime in the 90s, I got a tour of the facilities housing this region’s atomic clock—”  
  
“What’s an atomic clock?” Donna interrupted.  
  
“It’s one of the many clever ways you humans have learned to measure time, since you can’t sense it directly like I can. The atomic clock here in Boulder provides the States with their primary time and frequency standards. Currently they use a cesium fountain atomic clock, which means it uses a fountain-like movement of atoms and a series of lasers to measure frequency and time intervals. The whole process is actually a bit convoluted, overly so in my opinion, but you’ll all get better at simplifying that sort of thing in the future…”  
  
Donna slowly grew more interested in learning about the many U.S. national and international scientific facilities in Boulder and their purposes (much to her surprise), so much so that the Doctor’s ongoing explanations were only cut short by the arrival of their tea and Donna’s food. The tea was passably decent, as was the soup and burrito.   
  
The two of them ended up staying long after they had had their fill, and eventually made their way over to the Boulder Book Store next door. Donna perused the magazines and the used books section for a while before she realized she hadn’t seen or heard from the Doctor in quite some time. It was only after wandering around all three levels of the shop that she finally found him sitting on the floor near the back of the main level, surrounded by children who were all listening to him with rapt attention as he read a picture book aloud.

Leaning against a bookshelf near the group, Donna watched the adorable spectacle with growing amusement. She had to admit that the Doctor was very good at entertaining the kids, making sure to show them all the colorful pictures in the book, and reading in a different, dramatic voice for each character.  
  
The Doctor glanced up at her with some uncertainty when she first arrived, like she’d caught him doing something he wasn’t sure he should be doing. Seeing the nonchalant expression on her face made him relax once more, and he sent a grin her way as he finished reading the tale of dragons and brave warrior princesses.. They all complained and begged for one more story as soon as he closed the book, and it took a long time for the Doctor to extract himself from his circle of miniature fans. It took just as long for their parents to gather up their respective children and wrestle them into tiny coats, hats and mittens.  
  
Donna stayed far way from that mess, laughing at the Doctor’s many failed attempts to escape the kid’s clinging hands and teary doe eyes. Given what had happened every other time kids were mentioned around him, she’d never have guessed he could stand a group of young, loud human children.  
  
Donna finally had to haul the Time Lord outside to avoid the oncoming storm of potential tantrums.  
  
“Come on, Doctor. It’s getting late.”  
  
“That was fun! Maybe I should do that more often! Also, you know there’s no time in the Vortex, Donna.”  
  
“Yeah, I know that, but those parents don’t have TARDISes. And I don’t want to have to hear ten different tantrums tonight.”   
  
“Ah, well, true. Oh, look! There it is!” The Doctor abruptly dug his plimsoll heels in, forcing them both to a halt outside the bookstore’s front doors. He pointed to the mountains, which looked like so close to downtown they seemed to be practically just down the street. Now that twilight had set in, Donna could see a huge, five-pointed star glowing golden-yellow and clear as day against one of the mountain’s dark silhouettes.  
  
“The good old Boulder Star! You know, I once helped a few students from the University of Colorado rearrange its shape into a peace sign. I don’t think any of the students were ever caught either, because we all escaped the police in the TARDIS. Arrived their dorms a few hours later, no one ever questioned them as far as I know. That was an interesting night, back in my...fourth? No, fifth body. Definitely one of those two. We could pay the star a visit before we go, what do you say?” The Doctor asked, bouncing a little on the balls of his feet.  
  
“Oh my god, of course you would do something like that. I suppose we might as well go...” Donna trailed off warily  
  
“Quite right. Back to the TARDIS then. Allons-y!” The Doctor cried excitedly.  
  
On their way back to the time ship, they admired the hundreds of colorful lights wrapped around the trees along the Pearl Street Mall and twinkling merrily against the dark winter night. Donna even briefly stopped them in front of the courthouse so she could watch the twinkling lights outlining the art deco building and the water fountain in front of it. Curved tubes of lights arced out of the center of the fountain, replacing the water for the winter.   
  
At times like these, Donna wished she had a camera to document the happier moments from her travels with the Doctor. Moments when she couldn’t stop laughing, moments when the Doctor did something absolutely ridiculous for no logical reason, and moments when she was mind-blown by the beauty her universe had to offer.

  
~ ~ ~ ~

  
Miraculously, they did NOT plummet off the side of the mountain with the star on it. (Flagstaff Mountain, according to the Doctor). Still, it was a close call. If the TARDIS had materialized just seven inches farther to the East in the small parking area along the side the dirt road winding up Flagstaff, they would have definitely gone over the edge.  
  
Standing outside the time ship and gazing up the steep slope of the mountain at the glimmering lights making up the Boulder Star, Donna’s mouth fell open. “You’ve got to be joking,” she said, throwing a disbelieving look at the Doctor. Families and friends of all ages scrambled up the snow-dusted, icy side of the mountain to the star, where other groups had already found rocky perches to sit on and look down at the city.  
  
“Nope!” The Doctor happily informed her. “It’ll be fine. Watch out for the ice and cacti under the snow, though. Those are painful to discover by accident.” And with that last, somewhat concerning warning, he tugged her across the road.   
  
There was no official path up to the star. What the Doctor lacked in tread on the soles of his Chucks, however, he made up for in enthusiasm. Donna cringed as she watched him nearly faceplant on an icy patch of snow just a few feet above her. He just managed to catch himself with his hands before he fell completely, and sprang back up to his feet with a laugh. “Aren’t you coming, Donna?” He called down to her.  
  
Donna rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I’m comin’. Just being more careful than you, as usual.” She grumbled goodnaturedly as she moved to catch up to him.  
  
She climbed slowly, carefully, determined to not break any bones in the process. Soon, she was gasping for breath as the lower oxygen content in the air far above sea-level started to get to her. By the time she finally made it to the large, flat rock the Doctor had claimed for them to sit on, she was barely able to breath.

Their rock was next to a metal pole that formed one of the star’s side points. “You made it!” The Doctor grinned, reaching down to help Donna the rest of the way up onto the rock.   
  
The redhead collapsed onto it, giving only a weak flap of her hand in his direction in acknowledgement as she caught her breath.   
  
Once she could actually breath fully again, she was able to take more of the glowing, festive atmosphere the star evoked. The view was beautiful too; she could practically see all of Boulder from here, with all of the city lights twinkling merrily in the darkness. Tiny lines of car moved along the streets, becoming little white and red ribbons of light along the highways stretching out through the night away from the mountains. It was still cold and a bit breezy, but not unbearable. The appeal of hiking up to the star was growing on her.   
  
Donna twisted around the look up at the top point, and immediately decided to never set foot any further up. Only a few brave souls (teenagers, of course) had dared to venture up to the top of the star, where the slope was even steeper.  
  
The Doctor remained uncharacteristically silent through her observation, simply sitting forward with his elbows braced on his knees and resting his chin in his hands.   
  
“You know,” he said eventually, drawing her attention, “light travels at 186,282 miles per second—that’s about 299,792 kilometers per second—in the vacuum of space. Imagine that, Donna. Every second, a little photon, a little beam of light, moves 299,792 kilometers closer to somewhere new, illuminating wherever it goes. Of course, in comparison to the size of the universe, even at that speed that’s barely going anywhere. And out of all of that vastness, buried in one of the millions of strands of time and dark matter that bind our universe together, in an ancient, rather average-looking spiral galaxy, orbiting around a G-type main sequence star that form at just the right place and just the right time…there’s Earth.”  
  
Donna gave him a sideways glance, a soft smile lighting up on her face. It was always fascinating to listen to the last Time Lord put the wonders of the universe, his wonder at the universe, into words. She was never sure what his quiet, contemplative states would lead to, but she was glad for a momentary reprieve from the chaotic cosmos.   
  
“Yeah,” she quietly agreed. “There’s Earth.”  
  
“So much good, so much evil. Just add water.”  
  
“Did you come up with that yourself?”  
  
The Doctor shrugged one shoulder. “Nah. Just borrowed it from the author Markus Zusak.”  
  
“It’s good.” Donna said, leaning back on her hands. A warm breeze was coming down the mountain, scattering dry grasses and pine needles around them. She blew loose strands of hair away from her face. “Thanks for bringing us here. It’s a nice view.”   
  
“I’m glad you like it,” the Doctor said.  
  
Donna tilted her head back to gaze at the partially cloudy night sky. She had seen so many stars and planets, wonders that most humans in her time would never get to see, but there was still something unique about viewing the starry sky from the Earth’s surface. “You were right,” she admitted. “Sometimes when we’re out there helping species I never even knew existed, on some planet I’ve never dreamed of visiting, or getting caught up in history, I forget how beautiful my own planet can be. There are so many terrible things that can happen here, but Earth is also amazing.”  
  
The Doctor made a small sound of agreement, before a shout from across the Boulder Star caught his and Donna’s attention. A little girl standing near the central support pole was watching in dismay as her small green backpack tumbled end over end down the mountain toward the road.  
  
“Oh no,” Donna said, her gaze following the backpack’s bumpy descent. “That won’t be fun to go after. It’s definitely headed for that cactus I nearly fell on, too.”  
  
The Doctor was quick to reassure her, pointing to a pair of teenagers down the slope (above the cactus) who were already moving to catch the wayward bag. “Looks like those two will get it for her. That’s how it works up here, see? At the best of times, everyone helps each other.”  
  
“So there are still a few good people in the world,” Donna said. The teen with a guitar case on his back, clearly quite confident in his winter mountaineering climbing skills, let the backpack roll right into his waiting arms before bounding up to the little girl with his friend. They returned the bag to with jovial pomp and circumstance.  
  
“Oh, more than a few!” The Doctor countered, bumping Donna’s shoulder with his as they continued to watch the exchange.  
  
She huffed and lightly elbowed him back. “You know what I meant,” she said.  
  
“Well, I—"  
  
Two brilliant flashes of light behind them brought their banter to an abrupt halt. The Doctor and Donna both turned around just as the star’s lights abruptly went dark.  
  
Shouts and high-pitched shrieks of alarm echoed through the night. Donna quickly slid off her perch, standing up with one hand clutching the edge of the flat boulder. She and the Doctor stared up the dark slope in the direction the flashes of light had come from, searching for their source.  
  
“What do you think that was?” She asked. She had to raise her voice to be heard over the cacophony coming from everyone else.  
  
The Doctor was little more than a tense silhouette beside her. “I…don’t know yet,” he said. “The rest of Boulder hasn’t lost power though, so I think it’s safe to assume this was an isolated incident.” He was feeling around the pocket of his suit jacket, presumably searching for the sonic screwdriver.  
  
Donna was glad it was a full moon night, with the moon providing some light for her eyes to adjust to. She squinted, spotting a flash of movement up the mountain. One, no _two_ figures cautiously emerged from the snow-dusted trees along the edge of the star and made their way downhill. They looked human, or at least humanoid. _Then again_ , Donna reconsidered, _a human-looking body doesn’t mean they’re actually human._  
  
One of the figures suddenly slipped on a patch of ice, their feet instantly sliding out from underneath them. They flailed their arms wildly before frantically grabbing the nearest tree branch, sitting down hard on the frozen ground. They stayed there until their friend caught up, and helped pull off one of their boots to check for some kind of injury.   
  
“Doctor!” Donna hissed, not daring to look away from the two.  
  
“Hmm?” The Doctor was still rummaging through his pockets in search of the sonic.  
  
“You should really look up.” The redhead spoke with more urgency this time, jabbing her elbow into his not-Martian-but-still-alien ribs. “Now, Spaceman!”  
  
“Ow! Give me one two seconds, will you? I’ve— Aha! There you are!” The Doctor exclaimed, triumphantly withdrawing the sonic screwdriver from his coat pocket.  
  
Above them, the second figure had shifted to sit beside the first. In the process, one of them accidentally knocked the first’s boot and sent it rolling down the mountain straight toward Donna and the Doctor. Donna prepared to catch it—and really, it would have been an easy enough thing to do— but the Doctor was faster. He leaped up on to the flat boulder they’d been sitting on and scooped up the boot before it could fall any further.  
  
He straightened, gaze darting between from the footwear in his hands to the figures who had lost it. Donna couldn’t read his expression in the low light. Why was he hesitating to return the boot? Was it alien after all?  
  
That was the moment when, with a few loud pops and a low electrical hum, the Boulder Star flickered back to life. Everyone cheered for lights’ return.   
  
In that moment, the two mysterious figures’ features became visible. Donna’s mouth fell open when she caught sight of their faces.   
  
The Doctor gasped, letting the black boot slip from his fingers and fall to the ground with a thud.  
  
Donna could see the exact moment he decided to run—toward the two figures, not away—and quickly caught his ankle before he could take off.   
  
He looked down at her, startled.  
  
She tossed the black boot up to him. He caught it, his expression a wordless plea for confirmation that she was really seeing the same thing he was. She smiled, and gave him a small, sure nod in response.

“Go on,” she said, “I’ll catch up. I think your Cinderella’s waiting for her shoe back.”   
  
Donna had never seen the Doctor move as fast as he did then. _Honestly, I’d probably do the same if the love of my life and a daughter I thought I’d lost forever suddenly returned out of the blue,_ she reasoned, watching the Doctor clamber up the mountainside like his lives depended on it. For all she knew, they might have.

  
  
~ ~ ~ ~  


  
“Dad!”  
  
“Doctor!”  
  
The Doctor knew those voices, had known that hearing those voices now should be impossible, and yet… Here they were.  
  
He was moving before he’d even made the conscious decision to do so, hearts in his throat and respiratory bypass kicking in, because he’d all but stopped breathing the moment he’d seen them. Every other thought lost importance, swiftly overtaken by the names repeating over and over again in his mind. 

_Jenny!_ _Rose!_

 _Oh, please let this be real._  
  
He almost faltered halfway there, almost gave into the fear that this wasn’t really happening. But Donna had nodded. She had seen them too, and now he could sense their presences in space and time, burning bright and brilliant and wonderful. He could see the one person that was everything his aching hearts had missed for so, so long, and that drove him forward those last few feet.  
  
Her name rushed past his lips as barely more than an exhaled breath, but it didn’t matter if she heard it or not because then he was there, falling to his knees before Rose Tyler and pulling her into the most magnificent hug the entire universe had ever known. He may have slipped on ice at the last second and almost knocked her over in the process, but none of that mattered either. She simply steadied herself with a laugh—oh, how he’d missed that laugh— and wrapped her arms around him just as tightly.   
  
“Rose! Rose, you’re here, you’re really here. How are you—I thought—” The Doctor didn’t know what to say first. How could he possibly put everything he thought he’d never get to tell her into words?  
  
“I’m really here, Doctor,” Rose said with a joyful chuckle, both hands tightly clutching the back of his coat. A tremor went through her and she gripped his coat even tighter, like she was afraid he would disappear if she let go. The Doctor knew that feeling all too well.  
  
He glanced up at Jenny then, meeting her hopeful smile with a watery one of his own. Her features were the same as they had been on Messaline, and he couldn’t help but wonder how that was possible. She was dressed in all black, including her combat boots. A neon pink knit hat with cat ears was pulled down over her blonde hair. The Doctor knew he would have time to talk to her later, hopefully for a long, long time to come, but he had something very important to do first.  
  
He tilted his head down, bringing his mouth closer to Rose’s ear. “I missed you,” he whispered, lips tingling in anticipation as they hovered over her soft skin. There were thousands of hopes and fears flying through his head, but he kept himself grounded, focusing on her presence and how it soothed him, revived him in ways only she could.  
  
“I really missed you too,” Rose echoed. She didn’t appear to want to let go of him anytime soon, one of her hands drifting up to play with the short hairs at the nape of his neck.  
  
He pulled back slightly and brought his hands up to either side of her face, thumbs caressing her cheeks. “Rose Tyler…” He began.  
  
She stiffened.  
  
_(Had she truly not known how he felt about her? He thought he’d shown her enough before, thought she might have understood despite never hearing the words.)_  
  
He kept going. “I don’t know how you managed to find your way here. I tried for so long and nothing worked, but that’s not important. What is important is that you’re brilliant, and you’re here, and I never got to finish telling you something last time. That is, if you, um…”  
  
An adoring smile appeared on Rose’s face as he trailed off. “My feelings haven’t changed. Even if you can’t say the words…I think you tried to tell me in other ways before.” She said softly.  
  
He searched her gaze, in absolute awe of the love he saw there. “Rose Tyler, I love you.”  
  
It was a resolution, a confirmation, and a promise. And kissing her for the first time, the first real time without either of them about to die or because one of them was possessed, or for any other reason than simply because he loved her, sealed that promise. If the eyes of the universe were always watching the Doctor, then he was going to make his intentions clear beyond a shadow of doubt when it came to this human woman, his saving grace, his brave pink-and-yellow girl. She didn’t hesitate to respond in kind. She was his and he was hers for however long their forever might be.  
  
They might have possibly gotten a little too wrapped up in each other—because kissing Rose Tyler was absolutely fantastic, and the Doctor was trying making up for years of missed chances—and only broke apart when Donna wolf-whistled.   
  
“Save it for the TARDIS, Spaceman, there are kids present!” The redhead said, jokingly trying to cover Jenny’s eyes with her hands.  
  
Jenny laughed and batted her hands away. “I’m not that much of a kid!” She protested.   
  
“Think you dropped my boot,” Rose muttered, drawing the Doctor’s attention back to her.  
  
His brow furrowed in confusion. “What?”  
  
She looked pointedly down at her feet. He followed her gaze, rapidly working to recall the incident that had reunited them. “Ah, right. Boot. Where—”  
  
Rose stifled a giggle, patting his cheek with a tongue-touched grin like she knew exactly what her kiss had done to him. She felt around behind her until her fingers closed around the missing boot’s sole, and proceeded to jam her foot back into it with a small wince.  
  
“I’m fine, just slipped on ice. It’s not even sprained,” she said, noticing the concerned look that flashed across the Doctor’s face. He remained doubtful ( _of course he did, he had just gotten her back_ ), but she stopped him with a quick kiss before he could scan her with the sonic screwdriver.  
  
When she pulled away, she tilted her head in Jenny and Donna’s direction. “Think we’ve scandalized them enough for one night yet?” She asked.  
  
He gaped at her, unable to form a proper response. Rose took pity on him, getting to her feet and drawing him up with her. “She’s been waiting a long time to find you again, you know,” she said. She didn’t have to clarify who she was talking about.  
  
Jenny didn’t wait for her father to make up his mind (again) about her. She simply darted forward to envelope him in a crushing hug when he took a tentative step toward her. The Doctor returned it, opening his mouth to apologize, to say _something_ , but the words caught in his throat.  
  
“It wasn’t your fault,” Jenny said, stepping back.  
  
“But I—”  
  
“It wasn’t, Dad, and besides, I came back. And I got to visit so many planets after I left Messaline! I did an awful lot of running, and saved a few lives too. And I love it,” Jenny said in a rush, voice brimming with excitement.  
  
“But how did you...You were...You didn’t…” The Doctor couldn’t bring himself to say it, even now.  
  
Jenny’s expression softened. “I’m not exactly sure what happened,” she said, her gaze briefly flickering to Rose. “All I know is that it felt like waking up from sleep. A little more jarring, a bit more intense at first, but it wasn’t a complete regeneration. I think it happened because of the way I was created.”  
  
Donna finally spoke up. “You sort of ‘caused’ your own creation, right? We went to Messaline because the TARDIS sensed your presence, but you only came about because we went there in the first place.”  
  
_Oh, Donna was brilliant! So unsure about herself, but she really needn’t be._  
  
“Aaannnd…” Rose added, slipping her hand into the Doctor’s, “I found Jenny, well, we found each because we were drawn to each other’s presence without realizing it.”  
  
“What do you mean?” The Doctor asked, tension creeping into his voice the more he thought about all the potential implications of Rose and Jenny’s return.  
  
Rose grinned disarmingly. “I guess the dimension cannon honed in on her location because her presence is so similar to yours. Handy, that.”  
  
“A dimension cannon?!”  
  
Nodding, Rose pulled a flat, yellow, circular device out of her jacket pocket and held it up for him and Donna to see. “Yeah. Helped build it myself. I had to get back here somehow, didn’t I?”   
  
Before the Doctor could sputter out an incredulous reply, or launch into a detailed lecture about why blindly flinging oneself across the Void to get to another universe was one of the most dangerous things he could possibly think off, Rose squeezed his hand reassuringly. “I’m here now though. And so is Jenny. I promise, we’ll tell you everything, later. For now, can’t we just enjoy the view?” She gestured to the star around them, and the valley below.  
  
The Doctor let out the breath he’d been holding, looking down at their joined hands. The tension soon left his shoulders, and he couldn’t help but smile slightly as he gave her hand a small squeeze in return. “Won’t you get cold?” He asked.  
  
“Nah,” Rose shrugged. “Not if you let me borrow your coat.”  
  
“I’m fine with staying a little longer if you all want to,” Donna said, drawing Jenny into a side-hug. “And while we’re here, Doctor, I think Jenny and Rose need to hear about all your past Boulder adventures.”  
  
“Oh, this I have to hear!” Jenny grinned, far too much like her father to ever let such an intriguing statement go. Rose looked up at him expectantly, and for a moment, all the Doctor could think about was that there were so many similarities between her and his daughter it was almost…impossible. But he would have time to think more on that later. As for the present, of course Donna would force him into telling a few (slightly embarrassing) stories, and who was he to deny a captive audience of people he loved?  
  
“Oh, alright, if you insist.” He conceded, pressing a kiss to Rose’s hair. He took off his coat and helped Rose slip her arms into the sleeves, taking care to button up a few of the buttons before leading her, Jenny, and Donna back down to the wide, flat rock he'd found earlier.   
  
And sitting there in the light of the Boulder Star with his newfound, lost and found family of amazing, brilliant people, the Doctor was happy to stay a little longer. As he began to tell the story of his last encounter with the star, he heard the teen with the guitar start to play a lovely little tune that the Time Lord had never heard before, but found the accompanying lyrics rather fitting.

  
_I want to tell you before I forget_  
 _You're doing well_  
 _You know you're living it_  
 _You're gonna make it no matter how hard it gets_  
 _Despite the darkness_  
 _Some of these days_  
  
 _Wintergreen I can't outshine your radiance_  
 _Wintergreen or undermine your silliness_  
 _Wintergreen I love you more than anything_  
 _Wintergreen despite the darkness_  
 _Some of these days_  
  
**“Wintergreen”**  
 **(The East Pointers)**  



End file.
